the Indian landscape.

I am unpacked and my belongings are settled. so so so happy to be with Lene and can't wait to see Ariel and I miss Rylee. but I am not feeling exactly keen on the Provo social scene. I forgot how to live. and I forgot the anxiety I get in this town. oh to be back in that haven where 200 children automatically love you, forgive you for messing up, tell you your hair is not nice but love you and like you anyway.

I drove myself to Provo today. I was halfway to Cedar City, about 20 miles into the drive when I gasped at the fields of sunflowers beside me. they seemed to be passing me while I remained stationary, rather than the other way around. and I remembered a little bit about myself. I love Utah. I love the land and space and mountains and yellow grass (weeds) growing tall on either side of Interstate 15.

driving made me remember my first trip away from Shanti Bhavan--sitting in the back of a jeep (I can't remember what they're called in India? something with a k). I think there were about 9 of us scrunched in there. the landscape was amazing, and I remember feeling so glad that I was in rural India. I enoyed the cities during my stay, I did. but I loved that land with so much vegetation, water, trees.
more than anything I wished the kids were with me. I wished I could tell them about the Wasatch mountains, about Cove Fort, and the pioneers. I wished the 5th graders were all with me to experience freeways and highways. I spent an entire 45-minute Social Studies period trying to explain a smooth, faster road with exits. I thought of a million ways that I could have better explained this.

I rekindled my friendship with the Utah landscape today and thought of how rural India is not unlike Utah. I have never noticed how rural Utah is until today. and though socially I'm unsettled, I'm glad to see my old world in context of the Indian one. may there be many more paradigm shifts.